• Indian Economy today and our lives
• A dynamic discourse
• It counts to look back - why?
• Deploy the knowledge from various branches of Economics - e.g. Macro, Micro, Development Economics, International Trade and definitely Statistics - to understand the reality of Indian Economy

• Know the current issues and problems facing Indian Economy
• Is that all?
• A multi-dimensional course involving hardcore economic theories, statistics on one hand and socio-political perspectives and complex narratives on the other hand
• This course will help us understand (the nuances of) India’s `progress’ since independence
• Where are we today and why are we here
• Where do we go from here?

Our Focus - Unit 1

• Major features of the economy at independence;
• Planning: Evolution of India’ development goals and strategies
• Structural constraints and Indian development strategy:
• Debates between growth and distribution,
• Public Sector vs. Private Sector,
• Consumer Goods vs. Capital Goods, -Import Substitution vs. Export promotion;
• Growth and development under different policy regimes
• Goals, constraints, institutions and policy framework;
• an assessment of performance – sustainability and regional contrasts; structural changes, savings and investment including the saving-investment paradox.

• A dual economy (in the Lewisian sense)

• 80 percent of the population residing in rural areas - surviving on subsistence agriculture and traditional household manufacturing catering to local needs

• ``modern" sector – export oriented plantation crops (e.g. tea and coffee)

• few port-based enclaves of large scale manufacturing (mostly cotton and jute goods) — Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai)

• first half of 20th century – almost no growth in per-capita income except few islands of prosperity

• social development – India at the bottom of the world league

‘Successful’ Poverty Reduction

Source: Datt, Ravallion and Murgai (2016)